Wake up, pay attention to John’s description of latest events and weather conditions, keep an eye on passing boats on AIS and within eyesight, adjust course to give way to any tanker or cargo vessel, look out for fishing nets, cuddle the dog, drink tea, nibble a snack, try to stay awake, check the time.
3 hours later, wake up John tell him the latest events and weather conditions, try to go to sleep, wake up with the rolls of the bumpy ride, check the time, try to go to sleep, it's not my shift yet.
One more big roll, a few other big waves wash the deck, the swell gives no rest. Repeat all again until the 72 hours it takes us to make this trip are over.
No real meals, even though we prepared food that only required being heated but the 2.5 to 3-meter swell and the winds averaging 24 knots both on the beam, take our appetite. None of us is seasick but going below deck in such rough seas only to be tossed around is something none of us feels like doing until hunger really gives a sign.
I think the hardest part is getting into the rhythm of the 3 hours awake 3 hours sleeping.
It's difficult to do it at the beginning of the journey because it's not the normal time to go to sleep and then as the day advances it becomes difficult to just sleep a bit less than 3 hours.
The hours go by and the situation doesn't get better, staying awake more than 2 hours during the night is really hard work... it's a slightly rough ride so moving around juggling the safety lines etc is quite troublesome.
But practice makes perfect, so we keep pushing ourselves to get where we want to be.
Do it again!